Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Win-Win Career Negotiations - Proven Strategies For Getting What You Want From Your Employer
Win-Win Career Negotiations: Proven Strategies for Getting What You Want from Your Employer by Peter J. Goodman is a great little book regarding negotiations about employment issues. Goodman incorporates the approach described in Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreements Without Giving In, by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. In fact, Roger Fisher even wrote the Foreword to this book.
The book focuses on career negotiations using a principled negotiation strategy for win-win propositions rather than bluffing. Part one of the book is a basic overview of the negotiation process and skills that are essential for negotiating success. This part contains the first two chapters. Chapter on focuses on basics that include topics such as listening, communication, self-control, focus, and of course the four keys outlined in Getting to Yes:
1. Separate the people from the problem.
2. Focus on interests, not positions.
3. Invent options for mutual gain.
4. Insist on using objective criteria.
Chapter two is a good basic primer on getting ready to negotiation. Every negotiator knows that preparation is key, and Goodman lays a solid foundation regarding this important step.
Part two of the book looks at specific employment negotiation issues. Chapters topics include: the interview, salary, stock options, signing and performance bonuses, benefits, relocation, various nondisclosure agreements, severance packages, employment agreements, and annual reviews.
The final part of the book looks at the big picture and covers topics such as professionals' perspectives on negotiations and working in groups.
The appendix includes two model agreements that strongly favor the employer with instructions to put your knowledge to use by identifying the undesirable clauses within the agreements and then restructuring each clause to bring the agreement back into balance. There is a clause-by-clause analysis following each agreement.
Overall, this is a great little book that shows hot to get what you want from your employer and coworkers by negotiating in a collaborative way. This book can help anyone in varying aspects of their career development process. Negotiation is a part of life, and it is especially a part of the work world. This book provides advice and strategies that will not only help you build professional relationships and improve the ones you have, but also get ahead in all areas of your career.
Alain Burrese, J.D. is a mediator/attorney with Bennett Law Office P.C. and an author/speaker through his own company Burrese Enterprises Inc. He writes and speaks about a variety of topics focusing on the business areas of negotiation and success principles as well as self-defense and safety topics. He is the author of Hard-Won Wisdom From the School of Hard Knocks, several instructional dvds, and numerous articles. You can find out more about Alain Burrese at his websites http://www.burrese.com/ or http://www.bennettlawofficepc.com/
Monday, 23 January 2012
The 4-Hour Work-Week Review
What is your lifestyle like? Perhaps working nine to five, a fulltime college student, full time mother, or even all three! Have ever wondered if there was a way you could break out your current lifestyle? You bet! Timothy Ferriss has escaped the rat race and now has shown us how to do it for ourselves. Inside the 4-Hour Workweek you will find how to minimize work time, make passive income, how to take min-retirements, and much more to help you achieve the lifestyle you never thought possible.
Tim starts the book by contrasting the deferrers the new rich. He defines deferrers as those who work all their life and save everything for the end. The new rich, Tim says, are those who enjoy a mobile lifestyle, being able to work from anywhere, and most of all breaking the 9-5 rat race. He says that being unreasonable and having a defined unreasonable dream-line is key to achieving new rich status. Along with each chapter Tim has a comfort challenge, some of them may seem silly or trivial, but they help to break the reader out of their current shell, something that is necessary to start moving towards a new lifestyle.
In this guide you will find a sections titled elimination. This focuses on doing the tasks that are most important to taking you a step closer to your dream-line. Tim says many people stay busy, but they may be busy with just staying busy. This chapter will teach us how to stay effective by staying on the tasks that matter most. One of my favorite parts of this section comes from a principal that Ferriss got from an economist named Vilfredo Pareto. This is something called the 80/20 principal. Tim says that principal can be applied by asking the following questions.
1.) Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?
2.) Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?
He says by asking yourself these questions you can find your inefficiencies and eliminate them, while also identifying your strengths and multiplying them.
Next is my personal favorite step in the book, which is on Automation. This section is guide on how to outsource things that are unnecessary for you to be involved with. This is the major step on top of the earlier elimination step that will help you achieve freedom from you work. Tim says that this step is a critical part of the lives of the new rich. Furthermore in this section you will find steps and strategies to achieving passive income. Some of the steps include picking a profitable niche, and marketing or creating a product, along with many resources that have been used by Tim himself to help with these steps.
The final step Tim calls liberation. This is all about how to escape the office, entrepreneur or employee. In this section you will find step-by-step how to negotiate a remote work location with your boss. This is to help any employee stuck in their 9-5 routine that would like to break being bound to the office.
Overall this book is a great guide to achieving an alternative lifestyle. If you are someone who is looking for more time with family and friends, freedom to travel, or extra income, this book is a guide you can't afford not to read.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)